From Oberlo article:
“Undeniably, one of the biggest impacts—if not the biggest—on ecommerce trends in 2020 will be COVID-19.
With governments worldwide shutting stores and implementing lockdowns to restrict social movement for months on end in a bid to combat the coronavirus, more and more people are resorting to online shopping to purchase items.
Already, ecommerce giant Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has seen his fortune grow by nearly $24 billion thanks to increased customer demand for Amazon’s products and services.
And experts predict that the impact of the coronavirus will not just be a short-term boost to ecommerce but one that’s here to stay, even after COVID-19. This is because people will get comfortable with the comfort and convenience it offers and the benefits of contactless payments, both of which are likely to cause a permanent behavioral shift towards digital purchases.
In fact, market analysts say that the ecommerce industry will be the biggest beneficiaries of the coronavirus pandemic. Penetration rates, which are currently at 15 percent, are expected to increase to 25 percent by 2025 (MarketWatch, 2020). That marks a 67 percent increase in five years.
The positive COVID-19 impact on ecommerce, unfortunately, spells a heavy loss for brick-and-mortar stores. As many as 100,000 are forecast to shut over the next five years.
At an estimated 24,000 closures, apparel retailers will be the most affected, followed by 12,000 consumer electronics stores, and 11,000 home furnishings and grocery stores each.”